How you can help

What it means to be a Lead Fundraiser

21 February 2016

Since we are still looking for a lead fund raiser, I thought I’d give you a flavour of the role. I first started with Cats Protection as a fund raiser volunteer in 2005. I already was aware of CP because I had adopted two kittens from Rosemary, our lead fosterer, in 1998 (one died in January and the other one is still with us at the great age of 18). I loved fund raising from the beginning and worked closely alongside our, then lead fund raiser, Edna. On her departure in 2008 I took over the role.

Perhaps a better name for this role should be Fun Raiser as it is hard to beat working on a stall on a summer afternoon at a traditional village fete. There is such a great camaradarie between the various charity stall holders and the general public visiting are genuinely interested. I can’t count the number of times someone comes to our stall recounting tales of their cats and how often these cats are cats adopted from us! Even Epsom’s Member of Parliament Chris Grayling came and had a chat about cats. We organise tombolas, pick a lolly, guess the number of sweets and lucky dip for the children amongst other things.

One of my favourite events was the Burgh Heath dog show which aims to support all animal charities from ferret rescuing to a small charity rescuing donkeys in Egypt, as well as being a good viewing point for the various dog competitions. Fund raising is so diverse, summer fetes are only one aspect, we have held fashions shows, street collections, Teas on the Green at Brockham, Christmas Fairs and volunteer get togethers where our members are always welcome.

There really is no end to what can be done to raise funds to support the cats whilst at the same time meeting people and making friends, not to mention working alongside volunteers with the same aim in mind. Thank you, Pat.